Remember when the travel schedule of Tom Krens was enough to send speculation through the roof on the subject of the next Guggenheim branch? Krens has been sidelined on that score, but his favorite architect Frank O. Gehry has not. But it’s not the Guggenheim-Bilbao that’s the model these days;
now Disney Hall is IT.
So, let me say straight out, this is just a rumor.
But in mid-July, Gehry was spotted in both Barquisameto and Caracas, Venezuela. His very presence, with Gustavo Dudamel, set tongues wagging about the possibility that Gehry will design a concert hall for the Orchestral and Training Center for Social Action Music West — according to local reports. (An intrepid friend, who happened to be in Venezuala, tipped me off to the sighting of Gehry.) The Inter-American Development Bank is said to be financing the hall, but there’s as yet no mention of it on the bank’s website.
There’s no official confirmation of Gehry’s involvement either, but apparently Dudamel, who has befriended Gehry, loves his new home in Los Angeles and has shown it off to influential Venezuelans, who agree. Above, Dudamel is taking Gehry to the site allocated for the center in Barquisameto, his hometown, along with Jose Antonio Abreau and Henry Falcon, the city’s mayor.
Gehry was also treated to a sampling of music by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, which Abreau founded and which Dudamel led until the Los Angeles Philharmonic plucked him to be its leader (beginning next month). While headquartered in Caracas, the Youth Orchestra would get a second him in Barquisimeto.
Photo Credit: El Impulso, Daniel Arrieta.